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Well, Globalization is in the air! Its becoming increasingly evident that we'll live with this predominantly prevailing phenomenon till our life's end. Luckily, being in a developing world helps to understand the other side of the coin too.

Is it fair to object the free trade policy as advocated by the western community? Are we being narrow-minded when we strive for restrictions in the free flow of commodities across the globe? After all, we continously ridicule our previous generations for patronising the casteism and religionism. Where to place 'Patriotism' in today's global village?

Lets take an anology here: even when a world class table tennis player is pitched against the most novice of them all, after a few games (may be in 00's), consciously or unconsciously, the star player's quality of game comes down gradually to the level of that of novice till the novice starts winning. Lets examine the few factors that's in play here:

Somehow my last visit to my hometown was more interesting and soul-searching than my other previous visits. Probably because i was more open-minded this time...

The reason for my visit being the vazhaigaapu function, it went on smoothly and graciously. Kudos to the organizers!! (I din't move a finger for this as it was well taken care by the elders in the family, especially my highly energized aunt)

In my search for a measuring unit to gauge the growth of the town, I consciously avoided taking the economic factor and took up the social scale instead. The findings seem to be a mixed bag. My interaction with my schoolmate (Soundra Pandian who owns a fireworks factory in Sivakasi and lives in a nuclear family)whose brother and sister lives in metros displayed some positive change in the frequency of thoughts while the older generation tries to preserve the 'culture' and ensures enough speed brakers, which isn't bad though!

It was a good start to have cakes & milk from downstairs family (for Christmas) before heading to the Bangalore airport in the morning. Following that, the conglomeration with friends at Sealdah railway station (kolkata) restaurant at 4 PM continued the good spirits. The train journey to New Jalpaiguri through the night can be termed as ordinary except for those few good chess games with Paaps & chakkarai.

Well, so far no expectations arising within….does that equate to ignorance?

26 Dec 04 NJP railway stn. 07:30 AM 18 ° C

The Sumo trip to Gangtok (5 hrs) pulled me into the ‘Himalayan Mood’. Driving along the river with occasional military convoys crossing brought the first taste of Himalayan life. Western Ghats sure is a toy cousin of the Huge “H”, in terms of the scale.

27 Dec 04

Even after being seen the main parts of Gangtok and after spending 2 nights, I’m yet to comprehensively feel ‘Gangtok’. U can’t really …